The present invention relates to earphone sets of the type having a resilient headband as carrying at one or preferably both ends thereof an earphone, which is held against the ear by the resilient pressure of the headband. In order to be properly held on the user's head the earphone device should clamp about the head with a considerable pressure, and it has been experienced that the necessary pressure is in fact inconvenient for the user, when the pressure is exerted directly against the ears only. One manner of overcoming this problem is to provide each earphone with a surrounding pressure pad, which, in use, will encircle the ear and bear against the side of the head all around the ear, whereby the ear will also be sound insulated from the surroundings. This should be believed to be an advantage for the listening person, but most listeners, nevertheless, prefer to be able to still have a chance to hear external sounds, and besides, the ear surrounding pressure pad is liable to heat insulate the ear and therewith cause the ears to be inconveniently warm.
More specifically, therefore, the invention relates to an earphone set of the type in which the earphones are designed so as to be rested directly against the outer ear of the user. This type was known long before the above ear surrounding pressure pad type, and originally the earphones had an ear engaging member made of a hard material. In modern earphone sets the earphones are covered by a resilient pad made of a foam material having open cells, such that the sound can easily be transmitted through the pad, which, due to its resiliency, will contact the outer ear with a well distributed and thus locally low pressure. This pressure, however, is still inconveniently high when it should be sufficient to generally stabilize the earphone set on the user's head.
It has already been proposed, therefore, to provide the ends of the resilient headband with pressure pads for engaging the temple area of the user's head just above the ears, whereby the earphone set is held on the user's head primarily by the associated temple pressure, such that the pressure of the earphone against the outer ear can be relieved or even eliminated. It is still desirable, however, that the earphones should be in close contact with the ears, and because of the different ear and head shapes of the potential users it has been suggested, therefore, to arrange the earphones in such a manner that they are adjustable towards and out from the ear relative the position of the temple pressure pad portion.
Such an adjustment, of course, is easily achievable by some kind of a screw spindle or other adjustable arrangement between the earphone and its associated end of the headband or between the headband and the temple pressure pad. An associated disadvantage is that an earphone set, once adjusted to one person, rarely will be conveniently adjusted to another person having access to the same set, and that the presence of the adjustment arrangement tends to be a difficulty for a neat design of the set.
On this background it is the purpose of the invention to provide an earphone set, the earphones of which are arranged so as to be self-adjusting, in an operationally acceptable and constructionally simple manner.
According to the invention the earphone and the temple pad are mounted on a common carrier member, which is pivotally held by the respective end portion of the headband so as to be pivotal in a plane generally normal to the side of the user's head about an axis located behind and between the active head engaging areas of the earphone and the temple pad. The resilient pressure of the headband end will hereby be transferred to the head through a two-armed lever, with respective leverages as given by the relative position of the pivot axis. The resilient pressure force, therefore, will be distributed accordingly between the ear and the temple, and this distribution will be substantially independent of the angular position of the said carrier member relative the end portion of the headband, i.e. independent of the engagement surface of the outer ear being spaced more or less from the side of the head.
It has been found that it is possible to locate the pivot axis such that an ear set will satisfy a wide variety of users, i.e. the set may be produced as a standard article for general use. On the other hand it will be easy to provide for some adjustability of the location of the pivot axis, whereby the user may decide, personally, the ratio between the pressure of the earphone and the temple pad, respectively.
The said carrier member may be arranged so as to extend generally in the longitudinal direction of the end portions of the head band, whereby the earphone set can be designed with an attractive appearance.
In the following the invention is described in more detail with reference to the drawings.